


Nephilim

by Problematic_Puppy



Category: Original Work
Genre: 13 year age gap, Consensual Underage Sex, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, June and Tabitha are both AFAB nonbinary people of color, June is 27 years old, Other, Rating will change, Step-Sibling Incest, Step-siblings, Tabitha is 14 years old, Younger person seducing older person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29344782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Problematic_Puppy/pseuds/Problematic_Puppy
Summary: Prison hadn't done June's recovery any favors. Counseling helped significantly, but then June met its new step-sibling, Tabitha like a dying ember meeting fresh kindling. The two explore their traumas, needs, and wants while Tabitha tries to spark something new for themself and June tries to avoid its recovery going up in flames.
Relationships: June/Tabitha
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Nephilim

So many things have changed in the five years June was away. Its mother’s hair had more gray in it. The car she picked it up in was a minivan instead of the jeep June grew up with, and there was a white dude sitting on the new dark blue suede couch in the living room of its mother’s house.

“Hello. You must be June.” He smiled and cautiously made his way over to it, like he was approaching a frightened animal. June wasn’t afraid, just confused, tired and hungry. “I’m Atlas.” He raised a hand for a handshake. June’s mother’s new boyfriend. She’d told June about him in the car on the way home.

June hesitated for a second then shook his hand. “Hey.” June smiled weakly at Atlas, who returned the smile. Then, the two stood in relatively awkward silence until June’s mother finally came into the house, and they both silently sighed in relief. Atlas walked past June and headed over to his girlfriend, leaving June alone in the dimly lit living room. June sat on the couch and wondered if it was actually allowed to be here, if it should be here. Did they even want June here? Did June deserve to be here? Before June could mull the thought over in its head, it was interrupted by its mother and Atlas walking over to it and sitting across from it on the other new white suede couch.

“Hey, June, um… Georgina and I need to talk to you about some things while we still have the chance.”

_ ‘Still have the chance?’ _ June thought. That sounded ominous as hell, but June’s therapist said that it was better to not expect the worse, so that was what it was going to do.

“Yeah, sure, what’s up?” June asked with a fake smile that must have been passable because the two sitting in front of it smiled back.

“So… I told Atlas about…” Georgina paused and made an expression that said, ‘You know,’ and rolled her wrists, motioning June to finish her thought.

“About… That?” June asked. They all knew what ‘that’ was, but no one was going to say what ‘that’ was. Eventually, though, it was going to have to talk about it with someone who wasn’t its therapist.

“Yes. That.” Atlas winced, but tried to smile so he didn’t come off as judgemental. “It isn’t just Georgina and me here. There’s someone else. Their name is Tabitha, and…” Atlas paused and cleared his throat. “You went to counseling, right?”

“I did.”

“Good, good. And you’re better now, right? I mean, they wouldn’t let you out if you weren’t better, and—”

“Tabitha is fourteen.” Georgina interrupted Atlas, since he was seriously going nowhere. “And we just wanted to let you know beforehand. We didn’t want to alarm you or… Or trigger anything. We just don’t want you relapsing.”

“And you think I’m gonna take one look at a kid and just ravish them?”

Georgina and Atlas both frown at the word ‘ravish.’

“No, we don’t think that at all. We just want to help you,” Georgina said. They both looked so sincere, and June almost believed them. June didn’t know what to say after that. Its chest felt tight, and with it being early January, the house was so cold. Could it ask to turn the heat up? It would take a while for the whole house to become comfortably warm. What June really needed right now was to take a shower that wasn’t shared with a dozen other people.

“Right. Okay. Um… Could I go take a shower?”

“Of course! Do you remember where the bathroom is?” It did, but before June could even answer, Georgina interrupted, telling it that the bathroom was upstairs, at the very end of the left hallway. While June was making its way up the stairs, it could hear its mother asking Atlas if he could go and pick up Tabitha, whom she called ‘Tabi.’ June stopped listening to their conversation after that and heading inside the bathroom, which looked so unfamiliar. A lot more than the living room, which only had two new couches and a new television. The bathroom was completely different. The wallpaper with pink and yellow flowers had been replaced with dark red brick, and the cracked, white tile floors were now gray vinyl. Everything was changing, but at least the changes looked nice.

Enough admiring the new bathroom, it was time to get warm. Clean, too, now that June thought about it. It hadn’t showered since this morning, or eaten, and it was reminded of that when its stomach growled as it started to get undressed. After adjusting the water temperature, June stepped inside the shower and let out a moan when the spray hit its body. The water was a little too hot, just how it liked it. June let the hot water pour down its body for a few minutes before it started to actually wash up. June didn’t leave the shower until the water started getting cold.

Getting out of the shower and wrapping a towel around itself, June realized that it didn’t have any clean clothes.

“Fuck,” it whispered and stood there, dumbfounded, not sure what to do. Years ago, when June had been a teenager, it would have just wrapped a towel around itself and walked to its room to get changed, but was its childhood room still its room? Where was June allowed to go in the house? After anxiously hopping on the balls of its feet, June opened the bathroom door, just enough to peek its head out and call out to its mother, and standing in the hallway, staring directly at the bathroom door, was a kid that June didn’t recognize. June let out a gasp of surprise and slammed the bathroom door.

“Whoa. Am I that ugly?” the kid in the hallway asked in a bemused tone.

“No!” A voice in the back of June’s mind told it not to say they weren’t ugly, because saying someone wasn’t ugly meant they were cute, and June couldn’t call Tabitha cute, could it? “I mean…” June sighed. “I just didn’t expect anyone to be there. Uh… Are you Tabitha?”

“Yeah. And you’re June, right?”

“Yeah. Hey, Tabitha, could you, like, go ask my ma to grab me some clean clothes?”

“I can do that,” Tabitha said and ran off before June could tell them not to do that. A few minutes later, Tabitha tried opening the bathroom door, but the knob was stuck. June’s eyes widened when the door shook.

“I got you some clothes.”

June sighed and opened the door halfway, just enough to grab the clothes. It didn’t look at Tabitha.

* * *

“Thanks,” June said after closing the door. Tabitha stood there for a few seconds, listening to June move around inside the bathroom. Then, they turned around and headed downstairs, where they found their dad and his girlfriend sitting at the kitchen table, talking softly while Georgina sipped some tea. When they noticed Tabitha at the foot of the stairs, they stopped talking and smiled at them.

“Hey,” their dad said, “dinner is almost ready.”

“Okay.” Tabitha sat at the kitchen table and continued doing their homework. They needed to read a chapter of the assigned book, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, then answer a bunch of questions about the chapter. Tabitha liked reading and usually read in their free time. Everyone always talked about how smart Tabitha was. Tabitha didn’t feel smart; Tabitha mostly just felt lonely, and reading helped fill that lonely void.

Tabitha stopped reading when they saw June coming down the stairs, wearing the clothes they had picked out for it, a white t-shirt that had a pink cartoon frog on it and a pair of black sweatpants. Both were short on it, but they mostly fit.

“Oh, did you go digging around my clothes?” Georgina smiled at Tabitha. “Sorry, I forgot to fetch you some clothes.” She stood from the kitchen table and made her way over to June.

* * *

“We need to really go clothes shopping for you soon.” Georgina ran her hands over June’s shoulders, trying to rub out the wrinkles, and June let her. “We’re having enchiladas for dinner. Do you still like enchiladas?”

“Yeah, ma.”

“Great.” Georgina patted June on its shoulders then turned away and started helping Atlas set the table while they talked about their day. June stood there, not really sure what to do. It watched its mother and her boyfriend set the table then looked around the kitchen to see if it had changed, too, and yeah, it had. Mostly in appliances, a new fridge, a new toaster, and a stand mixer they never had before, but the kitchen mostly looked the same, it thought. It wasn’t sure. It couldn’t remember every detail of its old home. While it was looking around, it locked eyes with Tabitha, who was staring at it, and June didn’t look away.

Tabitha had long, deep red hair that was straightened and was done up into a ponytail with a black ribbon. It most likely wasn’t naturally straight since they were half-black, with skin that was only a few shades lighter than the parts of June’s vitiligo-speckled, dark brown skin, and they had a mole above their left upper lip. June’s first thought was,  _ ‘They’re cute,’ _ and the voice in its head screamed at it. The voice told it that it couldn’t think that. Other people could think that and say that, but not June, not anymore.But June’s therapist had told it that, despite them being called ‘thought crimes,’ you weren’t actually committing a crime just by thinking of something and that your brain was a safe space. June was okay. June could think Tabitha was cute.

June took a seat at the table, across from Tabitha, and offered a smile. Tabitha quickly smiled back, and their amber eyes sparkled. When Georgina started setting food down on the table, Tabitha put their book and homework away.

Atlas and Georgina both bowed their heads while Atlas said grace. Tabitha and June didn’t bow their heads and just waited for them to be done before they started making their plates. Dinner was mostly uneventful, with Atlas and Georgina filling in the silence with conversation, and occasionally, they would ask June or Tabitha a question about their day, questions about schoolwork or books that Tabitha was reading, and Atlas asked very safe questions about June’s hobbies or things it liked while Georgina asked June questions about what its plans for the future were.

When there was a lull in conversations, Tabitha turned to June and asked the question everyone was terrified of them asking. “Dad said you were in jail. What did you do?”

June nearly dropped the enchilada it was placing onto its plate and looked over at Georgina and Atlas, looking for guidance.

“Uh… Sweetie, maybe we shouldn’t talk about that at the dinner table,” Atlas softly suggested.

“Okay, then let’s talk about it in the living room,” Tabitha said sarcastically at their father. Atlas sighed.

“I meant we shouldn’t talk about it right now, during dinner.”

“Why?” Tabitha turned back to June. “Did you murder someone?”

“No.”

“Did you rob a bank?”

“No.”

“Did you burn a building down?”

“N—” June stopped, realizing that Tabitha was just going to keep listing crimes until they got to what June actually did. June looked at its mother. “Is it okay if I talk about it?”

“Uh…” Georgina frowned and looked at Tabitha, who looked like they were close to begging at this point, eyes pleading. “Yes. Yes, if you’re comfortable talking about it.” Atlas looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. June sighed, and with its hands tucked onto its lap, it answered Tabitha’s question.

“I was trying to solicit sex from a minor.”

The dining room went silent for a few seconds, until Tabitha let out an, “Oh, okay,” and went back to eating like June hadn’t just said what it had just said. Everyone else pretended that that hadn’t happened, and Georgina started talking about a patient’s dog that she thought was cute.

“She was a poodle. I’d love to have a poodle.”

June tuned out for the rest of dinner. After which, when all the leftovers were put away and the dishes were placed into the dishwasher, Georgina showed June where it was going to sleep. She took it to the guest bedroom where family used to sleep when they came to visit. Tabitha slept in June’s old bedroom now, and June was tempted to ask its mother if it could see its old room, but after what happened during dinner, June was wiped out and just wanted to sleep. June wondered if the guest room had changed, but it wasn’t sure because it had only stepped foot in this room a few times. There was a bed that looked warm and comfy with its fluffy comforter and downy pillows, a wardrobe, and a desk. Other than that, the room was pretty barren but not unwelcoming.

“How are you feeling?” Georgina asked once they were in June’s room.

“Tired,” June said and sat on the bed.

“Oh, I’m sure.” Georgina gave a small smile. “But nothing a good night’s rest can’t fix.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” June said, saying they wanted to be left alone and sleep without outright telling its mother to get out of the room. Luckily, Georgina took the hint and turned to leave, but not before turning back around and walking up to June’s bed. She took its hands in her hands, squeezing them gently.

“I just want you to know that… we’re very proud of you. This is your home, and we’re glad you’re here.”

June wasn’t ready to hear that. It felt tears forming in the corners of its eyes and blinked them away. It wasn’t ashamed of crying; it just knew if it cried in front of its mother, then she would definitely hug it, and it didn’t want that right now. It honestly just wanted to sleep.

“Thank you, ma.” June sniffed.

Georgina gave June’s forehead a quick peck then left the room, shutting the door behind her. That was when June let a few tears silently fall. It quickly wiped them away and stood to turn the lights off, but before it could flip the switch, a knock came from the closed bedroom door. June opened it without hesitation and found Tabitha standing in the dark hallway, only partially lit by the glow coming from downstairs. They were dressed in what June assumed were their pajamas, a black tank top with white, lacy trim, and rosy brown shorts with a white drawstring. The ribbon in their hair was gone, letting it hang down.

“Oh.” June stepped back instinctually when it saw Tabitha. They were alone together upstairs again. Neither Georgina or Atlas ever said they couldn’t be alone together, but they never said they could, either. “Hey. What’s up?”

“Are you heading to bed? Dad, Georgie, and I are gonna watch a movie downstairs.” Tabitha said, fiddling with the lace on their tank top. June had never heard anyone call its mother ‘Georgie’ before, but it was cute.

“Yeah, it’s been a long day, and I’m beat.”

“Oh. Okay.” Tabitha tucked a strand of hair behind their ear. They looked so disappointed. “Another time, then.”

“Yeah, sure, another time.” June smiled reassuringly, domino-effecting a smile out of Tabitha.

“Good night,” Tabitha said with a nod. They turned around and headed towards the stairs, while June closed its door. June turned off the lights and was met with a room that wasn’t completely dark. A small night light glowed, golden, in the corner of the room, next to the desk. June had never feared the dark growing up, but the light made June feel safe. The bed was as comfortable as it looked, and as June drifted off to sleep, it could hear its three housemates laughing in the living room downstairs.

  
  
  



End file.
